1. Powerpoint by Mr. Zindman
Chapter 13 Westward Expansion
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(American Nation Textbook Pages )
Powerpoint by Mr. Zindman 1

2. I think I’m lost on the Oregon Trail!
Oregon Country
In 1820, Oregon had seemed a distant and dangerous place. Yet, by the early 1850s, large numbers of pioneers were heading across the Great Plains to the Far West. Their presence would support the claims of the United States to Oregon and put the nation into conflict with Great Britain.
I think I’m lost on the Oregon Trail! 2

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4. The Lure of Oregon
By the 1820’s, families were in search of good farmland, so they headed westward. They were drawn to the lands far west. Americans went to Oregon Country, a huge area beyond the Rocky Mountains. Today this land includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho and much of Wyoming. White settlers found fine farmland and good temperatures in the Oregon Country. Animal trappers flocked to the Oregon Country because for beaver and other fur bearing animals.
I like hunting in Oregon! 4

5. Competing Claims
Great Britain, Russia, Spain and the United States all claimed the land of the Oregon Country. Even though the land rightfully belonged to the Native Americans, the United States and other countries claimed the land in Oregon. In 1818, the United States and Britain agreed to occupy the land jointly.
As an early settler, I love hunting! 5

6. Fur Trappers in the Far West I love living off the land.
In Oregon’s vast forests a group of men called, Mountain Men trapped animals and lived off the land. They were viewed as rugged individualists, or people who followed their own independent course of life.
I love living off the land. 6

7. Lives Filled With Danger
They lived their life trying to make their fortune in trapping beavers in the Rocky Mountain Streams. However, bears wildcats and other wild animals often attacked these fur trappers, making their life very dangerous. Mountain men lived off the land. In bad times they would eat almost anything to stay alive. In good times, they would gorge themselves with food. They learned many of their survival skills from the Native American Indians.
Mountain Men…
beware of me! 7

8. Trading Furs
During the fall and spring, they would tend to their traps. Then in July, they would meet other traders in a place chosen the year before, called the rendezvous, (a yearly meeting for mountain men to trade furs). This was a fun time for trappers to laugh and exchange stories. By the 1830’s the fur trade was dying out because they killed too many beavers. Some Mountain Men took jobs leading settlers across the rugged trails of Oregon.
I can’t wait to meet the other fur traders 8

9. Mountain Men Explore New Lands
In their search for furs, the Mountain Men showed the settlers the wilderness trails of the west. At least one Mountain Man was a woman. Marie Dorion, an Lowan Indian, first went to Oregon with fur traders in She won fame for her survival skills.
Jedediah Smith led settlers acros the Rockies through South Pass, in present-day Wyoming. Manuel Lisa, a Latino fur trader, led a trip up the Missouri River in He founded Fort Manuel, the first outpost on the upper Missouri.
I will survive!
James Beckwourth, an African American, traveled west from Virginia to escape slavery. He was accepted as a chief by the Crow Indians. As a guide, Beckwourth discovered a mountain pass through the Sierra Nevadas that later became a major route to California.
Marie Dorion 9

10. Missionaries in Oregon
The first white Americans to build homes in the Oregon country were the missionaries. Among them were Marcus and Narcissi Whitman. They built their mission near the Columbia River. Soon they took over the Indian lands for their housed and their farms. 10

11. Wagon Train West
Throughout the 1840’s the settlement in Oregon grew. Farmers bragged about the great crops they harvested. Word got to the east and started “Oregon Fever.” Soon everyone was flocking to Oregon to start their own farm. Wagon trains left every spring for Oregon following the Oregon Trail. 11

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13. Life on the Trail
Life on the trail was hard, most families set out with heavy gear. They traveled from dawn to about 7:00 p.m. daily. The long trek held many dangers. In the spring travelers risked their lives traveling through the heavy rains. Snow storms often blocked traveling through the mountains. The biggest threat was sickness. Cholera and other diseases could wipe out a whole wagon train. Because travelers live so close together, diseases and germs spread quickly. 13

14. Trading with Native Americans
As pioneers moved west, they often passed Native Americans. The Indians seldom attacked the whites trespassing on their land. The Native Americans often traded with the settlers. Hungry Americans were grateful for the food they the Indians sold. Despite their hardships, 50,000 people reached Oregon between the years By the 1840’s the American people greatly out numbered the British people in Oregon. 14

15. Americans in Mexican Texas
2. The Republic of Texas
Americans in Mexican Texas
Since the early 1800’s American farmers had looked eagerly at the vast region called Texas. At the time, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of Mexico. In 1821, Stephen Austin was given a land grant by Spain so he was able to set up a colony. Austin gather 300 families to move to Texas. Some built large plantations and brought slaves to work the land.
Texas 15
Stephen Austin

16. Meanwhile Mexico won their independence from Spain
Meanwhile Mexico won their independence from Spain. The Mexicans allowed Stephen Austin and the settlers to stay because they believed they would help fight off Indian attacks. Soon afterwards, the Mexicans gave the American colonist land if they agreed to become Mexican citizens and Catholics. Soon 20,000 Americans moved to Texas. They had the support of many Tejanos, or people of Mexican descent born in Texas. 16

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18. Texans Take Action
Conflicts soon erupted because most of the settlers were Protestants and they did not speak the Mexican language. In addition, the Mexicans feared that the United States wanted to make Texas part of their country. This led to fighting between the Texans and Mexicans. The Mexican leader, Santa Anna was a dictator. A dictator is a ruler with absolute power and authority. Santa Anna was determined to rid Texas of the Americans. Many Texans fled.
Santa Anna 18

19. Siege at the Alamo and Texan Independence
Fewer than 200 Texans were held up in an old Spanish mission called the Alamo. At the final siege at the Alamo 183 Texans and almost 1,500 Mexicans died. The five Texan survivors, including Davy Crocket, were executed at Santa Anna’s orders. The men of the United States rushed to aid Sam Houston and the American Army. On April 21, 1836, Houston attacked Santa Anna’s army at the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texans won the battle and Texas declared their independence from Mexico. It did not become part of the United States because of differenced in antislavery feelings. Texans owned slaves.
Sam Houston

20. The Lone Star Republic
In battle the Texans had carried a flag with a single white star. After winning independence, they nicknamed their nation the Lone Star Republic. They wrote their own constitution using the United States Constitution as a model. People were divided on whether to annex, or add on, Texas.
I love
Texas! 20

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22. 3. California and the Southwest
The entire Southwest territory belonged to the Mexicans in the late 1840’s. This region was called the New Mexico Territory. It included most of the present-day states of Arizona and New Mexico, all of Nevada and Utah, and parts of Colorado. On these lands the Pueblo, Zuni and Apache Indians lived. 22

23. The Spanish Explorer Juan de Onate claimed the region for Spain in The Spanish built their city called Santa Fe. The town grew into a busy trading town. Americans were not allowed to settle in Santa Fe or anywhere in New Mexico. William Becknell was the first American to head for Santa Fe. He was the first to travel to Santa Fe. People who followed Becknell’s route called his route the Santa Fe Trail. 23

24. A String of Missions
California was ruled by Spain and then by Mexico. The Spanish soldiers and missionaries built the first European settlements in California. In 1769 Father Serra built the first mission in San Diego. Each mission included a church and surrounding land. Each mission became self-sufficient, producing enough for its own needs.
A statue of Father Junipero Serra and a Juaneno Indian boy, on display at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. 24
Father Serra

25. California Missions and Ranches
Before the Spanish arrived, California Indians lived in small, scattered groups. They were generally peaceful people. They did not offer much resistance to the soldiers who forced them to work for the missions. In return, they lived at the missions and learned about the Roman Catholic faith. Mission life was hard and thousands of Native Americans died from overwork and disease. 25

26. In the 1820’s, newly independent Mexico decided to speed up the economy by taking the land from the missions and giving it to wealthy individuals who set up large ranches in California. Native Americans did most of the work on the ranches. Vaqueros were Indian and Mexican cowhands that worked on the ranches. They were excellent riders and ropers, and their traditions were an influence for future cowhands. 26
Vaqueros

27. After Mexico won its independence, conditions for Native Americans grew even worse. The New Mexican Government offered mission land to ranchers. Some other ranchers cruelly treated the Indians. These harsh conditions had a deadly effect. Between 1770 and 1850, the Native American population of California declined from 310,000 to 100,000.
Native Americans go home! 27

28. Expansion: A Right and a Duty
As late as the mid 1840’s, many Americans saw a Democratic government of the United States as the best in the world. They believed that the United States had the right and the duty to spread its rule all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In the 1840’s, a New York newspaper coined a phrase for the belief. The phrase was called Manifest Destiny. Manifest means clear or obvious. Destiny means something that is sure to happen. 28

29. Election of 1844
Americans who believed in Manifest Destiny thought the United States was clearly meant to expand the Pacific. Many Americans believed that they were better than the Native Americans and Mexicans. For these Americans, racism justified taking over lands belonging to the Indians and Mexicans that they considered inferior.
In the election of 1844 James K. Polk was the candidate that favored expansion. His campaign cry became “Fifty-four forty or fight!”,because he demanded the whole Oregon region that the United States held with Britain. He demanded the area as far north as the 54 degree 40’ N latitude line.
In 1844, James K. Polk was elected president as the U.S. showed that they favored expansion. 29

30. 4. The Mexican War
In March of 1845, James K. Polk took office and took steps to honor his promise of expanding the U.S. by trying to gain control of Oregon. Wanting to avoid war with Britain, he compromised by dividing the territory at the 49 degree north line. The U.S. go the lands to the south of the line while Britain got those north. Annexing Texas
In 1844, Sam Houston, the president of Texas, signed a treaty of annexation with the United States. The Senate refused to ratify the treaty because they feared that this would cause a war with Mexico.
Sam Houston tricked the Senate by telling them that Texas would become an ally of Britain. When the Senate heard this, they feared a war with Britain so they added Texas to the United States.
Texas is part of the U.S.A.
Sam Houston 30

31. The United States and Mexico Clash
The annexation of Texas outraged Mexicans. They never accepted Texan independence and they were worried that Americans would start a rebellion in California and New Mexico.
On the other hand, Americans resented Mexico. They felt they were standing in their way of Manifest Destiny by not selling California and New Mexico to the U.S. for $30 million.
War Begins
When a border dispute over land that the U.S. and Mexico claimed control, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to set up posts in the disputed area. In April of 1846, Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and sparked a war. Congress declared war on Mexico.
Americans in the South and West were eager to fight wanting to expand, while those in the north opposed the war. They felt the South was just trying to find a way to add more slave states. 31

32. General Zachary Taylor
Fighting in Mexico
On June 14, 1846 rebels declared California an independent nation. They called it the Bear Flag Republic. In February of 1847 General Zachary Taylor met the Mexican General Santa Anna in the Battle of Buena Vista. Meanwhile, a second army led by General Winfield Scott took the city of Veracruz and moved on to the capital, Mexico City.
By 1847, The U.S. controlled all of New Mexico and California. General Scott met fierce resistance at Mexico City. Young Mexican soldiers made a stand at Chapultepec. The Americans were successful in in taking over the capital.
General Zachary Taylor

33. Peace Brings New Lands
The Mexicans signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Under the treaty the Mexicans had to cede, or give up, all of California and New Mexico to the United States. These lands were called the Mexican Cession. The U.S. had to pay Mexico $15 million and agreed to respect the rights of Spanish speaking people in that area.
A few years later in 1853, the United States paid Mexico $10 million for a strip of land we call today, Arizona and New Mexico. The Americans needed it to complete a railroad. This land was called the Gadsden Purchase and helped what most Americans felt as fulfilling the dream of Manifest Destiny.

34. 5. Americans Rush West
The largest group of settlers to move into the Mexican cession were the Mormons. Mormons belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints founded by Joseph Smith in The Mormons moved to Ohio. There they faced opposition and moved to Missouri and then Illinois. They set up a community called Nauvoo. Soon afterwards, the Mormons had trouble with their neighbors. The Mormons needed to seek refuge, or a place were they would be safe from persecution. They decided to go to the Great Salt Lake it Utah.

35. A Difficult Journey
Brigham Young was chosen as the leader after Joseph Smith was killed by an angry mob. He had the task of moving 15,000 people from Illinois to Utah. Relying on religious faith and careful planning, he achieved his goal.
He also had to overcome the challenges of living in the desert. Young planned an irrigation system to bring water to farms. The Mormon settlement grew and they took over Native American lands without paying anything for it.
Young was recognized as governor of the Utah Territory in 1850 and Utah became a state in 1896.

36. The California Gold Rush
While the Mormons were moving to Utah, thousands of Americans were racing farther west to California. The great attraction there was gold. In 1848, gold was found in Sutter’s Mill. Everybody rushed to the Sutter Mill in Sacramento, California. They hoped to find gold and become rich. Newspapers spread the word of the great gold strike at Sutter’s Mill. Soon more than 80,000 people made the long journey to California in They became known as the Forty-niners.
Sutter’s Mill in 1850
Forty-niners

38. Very few miners struck it rich
Very few miners struck it rich. Many miners became broke trying to find their fortunes in gold. Many stayed in California and began farming. They did not return home. The gold rush enabled the city of San Francisco to grow from a sleepy town to a bustling city of newcomers.
San Francisco today

39. California contained a diverse population
California contained a diverse population. The newcomers included runaway slaves from the south, New Englanders, and people from Hawaii. The Native Americans of California were driven off their land without a means of making a living. Many Chinese sailed across the Pacific Ocean to California to join the Gold Rush. Free blacks joined the Gold Rush hoping to strike it rich. California contained the richest population of African Americans. African Americans and other minorities still faced racial discrimination in California.
An African American digs for gold in Auburn Ravine in Some of the Gold Rush era's most daring pioneers were black.